


Winter’s Thaw

by latecamellia (caramarie)



Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-17
Updated: 2020-11-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:07:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27601865
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caramarie/pseuds/latecamellia
Summary: In the Snow Queen’s palace, Wooyoung tells Yeosang a story.
Relationships: Jung Wooyoung/Kang Yeosang
Kudos: 10





	Winter’s Thaw

> I want to tell you a love story, but I don’t know how. You weren’t there for the story part, and I can’t just tell you you love me. I can only tell you what I know. And how do I do that?
> 
> You know how they tell stories about the Snow Queen, but when it comes down to it, no-one will say she was actually responsible for anything? They’ll just say, _ah, well, three children under five, no wonder she ran off_ , or _you’d want a fresh start too, after that sort of accusation._ You hear about people being taken, but it’s always some cousin’s cousin. No-one will ever admit it for anyone they know.
> 
> So what I mean is, it doesn’t matter if I found frost on your windowsill three days in a row in the summer. People still said, _well, young people are temperamental_ , and _maybe he wasn’t as attached to you as you to him._
> 
> But that’s bullshit. They think that because you were quiet, you were cold, but it wasn’t like that. You weren’t like that. Maybe you don’t remember any more, but I used to climb over to your room all the time, because our houses were that close. And we’d lie on the floor and you were meant to be studying but instead we’d draw pictures of weird beasts and make up stories for them. Or you’d wake in the night and if my window was open, you’d climb over and crawl into bed beside me. And after a few times I just never shut the window properly. It used to drive my mother wild but she never knew why. I guess I never said, and you always went back in the morning, so no-one knew. And no-one believed me, after you disappeared, that you wouldn’t just _leave_. They just told me to get over it.
> 
> And you know, if they hadn’t been so insistent, maybe I wouldn’t have had to go? If they could have just believed that I was grieving … I could have dealt with it. But no-one did.
> 
> I could tell you so many things that have happened since I left, but what’s the point? You weren’t there. And it doesn’t matter what I suffered, or what I gave up … that’s not what I want to tell you.
> 
> What I want to tell you is that I believe you loved me. I believed it then, and I still believe it. And maybe I was wrong, maybe you like things better like this, but … I’ve been under spells too, you know. I know it happens. And if I think that you could have _chosen_ this … well, I have to believe it’s a spell. And I know she thinks I can’t break it; she wouldn’t have left me with you if she thought I could break it. But I …
> 
> I just want you to come home with me, or come away with me. Just tell me I wasn’t wrong – that I meant something to you. Don’t just look at me like I’m nothing; I can’t stand it. I can’t stand it.

* * *

Yeosang doesn’t care enough to stop the boy when he puts his arms around him, but the sound of his crying … it annoys him. It’s disruptive. It makes Yeosang wish the boy would go away again, so that things could return to how they were: silent, and perfect, and cold.

Tears, though, are _not_ cold. And the sound of crying has made a crack in Yeosang’s shell, and the crack makes a space, and so for the first time in a long time, there’s space in Yeosang’s heart for something to enter.

And the boy’s tears are hot enough, then, to melt ice.

Yeosang doesn’t even realise at first what’s happened. He only knows that all of a sudden his face is wet, and he touches a hand to his cheek, and he sees Wooyoung looking up at him, all red-eyed and snotty-nosed. And he doesn’t find that abhorrent.

The heart that is no longer frozen clenches.

Wooyoung asks, in a voice a little awed, ‘Are you crying?’

Yeosang can’t answer in words; he puts his arms around Wooyoung and clings to him. The chill of the room had meant nothing to him, but now Yeosang is cold, and Wooyoung is the only warm thing with him. Wooyoung is the warmest thing in all of the Snow Queen’s domain.

‘You weren’t wrong,’ Yeosang says.

And Wooyoung clings to him too.

* * *

The Snow Queen doesn’t stop them from leaving. She only wants what is perfect, and a toy that is cracked is not perfect. Any feeling is a flaw, from her cold perspective: neither love nor regret has any place in her halls.

When they step out into the stark winter sunlight, Yeosang says to Wooyoung, ‘You should tell me what happened. On your journey.’

‘I told you, it’s not important.’

‘If it happened to you,’ Yeosang says, ‘it’s important. And I missed it all.’

Wooyoung slips his hand into Yeosang’s, then. And he begins to tell him the story.


End file.
